DUKAKIS' WHITE HOUSE BID A FAMILY AFFAIR

Michael Dukakis' quest for the White House has been a family affair from the start, with his mother, wife and children fanning out across the country on his behalf.

This week the Dukakis clan comes to Atlanta.On hand at the Democratic National Convention when Dukakis accepts the presidential nomination will be a team he boasts of at virtually every campaign stop: his mother, Euterpe; his wife, Kitty; her son, John, and their daughters, Andrea and Kara.

"The family has been an enormous wellspring of pride for Michael," said Ira Jackson, a former aide to the Massachusetts governor and a family friend for 25 years. "The campaign has been very healthy for the family and that is a fact that Michael has not exactly been modest about lately."

Joining the immediate family in Atlanta will be another Dukakis who has received a flood of media attention this year - Oscar Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis, the candidate's cousin.

John, 30, Kitty's son from a previous marriage, began campaigning in 1964 for then-state Rep. Michael Dukakis. John was 6.

Like his parents, he graduated from Brookline High School. He tried his hand at acting but then went to work in 1985 as an assistant to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

He married Lisa Thurmond in 1987, and they jointly ran the southern leg of Dukakis' primary campaign. They are expecting a child.

Andrea, 22, is a 1987 graduate of Princeton University, where she majored in English. She coordinated Iowa field operations for her father and then headed to Florida to help out there. She will attend the convention but is taking a summer break to be an intern at a New York publishing house.

Kara, 19, delayed beginning college for a year to help her father's 1986 gubernatorial re-election bid. She signed on with his presidential campaign in May 1987, working in the national headquarters and taking occasional campaign trips.

When she entered Brown University in September 1987, Kara organized a Students for Dukakis chapter on campus and spent school breaks campaigning. She will return to Brown in the fall.

Kitty Dukakis, 51, a student and teacher of modern dance for 30 years, was forced off the campaign trail in June to have delicate spinal surgery to repair a disc condition doctors said might have been related to her dance career. She is recovering ahead of schedule.

Mrs. Dukakis presents strong contrasts with her husband, who is more conservative in dress and demeanor. But she has been at his side throughout his career and has made effective campaign appearances.

Most dramatic was her disclosure last year that she had been addicted to amphetamines for 26 years until receiving treatment in 1982. It has become a powerful part of her anti-drug message.

Her father, Harry Ellis Dickson, is former associate conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra and an occasional surrogate speaker for his son-in-law.

If Dukakis moves to the White House, his wife would be the only one to join him there. But Dukakis' mother believes his family would set a good role model for the nation.

"Because he grew up in an ethnic family, we kept the old values of discipline, of respect for older people, of family closeness," said the ever-energetic Euterpe Boukis Dukakis, 84, who has campaigned widely for her son. Her husband, who was a general practitioner specializing in obstetrics and delivered 3,000 babies in his career, died in 1979, shortly after Dukakis lost a bid for re-election.

In the governor's first term in the mid-1970s, Dukakis' family life was the subject of jokes among old-time Statehouse pols who made light of the governor's insistence on going home for dinner and of stories about Dukakis making Sunday breakfast for the wife and kids.

John Dukakis fondly recalls dinnertime political talk - at the kitchen table where the governor has made many important political decisions.

It was there that Dukakis told his wife and John he would run for president, and it was there that he huddled with his wife and top aides and decided to tap Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen as his vice presidential running mate.

"That's where he makes most of his important decisions, political decisions," said Ira Jackson, who in addition to serving a stint as Dukakis' revenue commissioner also used to babysit his kids.

During three terms as governor, Dukakis has endeavored to keep his family affairs as private as possible. He put off Secret Service protection for weeks out of concern over the disruptions it might cause them.